Trulia’s Home Offer Report & Interactive Map Reveals Where Homebuyers Can Find Deep Discounts Across America

Today, Trulia launched its Home Offer Report to help give homebuyers and sellers the upper hand – whether they’re making an offer or putting their home on the market.

This brand new quarterly report and interactive price reductions map offers ZIP-code level insights on when the first price reduction occurs in your neighborhood, where the reductions are happening and how deep the reductions are. Click on the map below to learn about the price reductions happening in your neighborhood:

Check out this slide show for the full Q1 2011 report findings:

Trulia Announces Partnership To Bring RE/MAX Listings to Fastest Growing Online Real Estate Audience

Last week at the RE/MAX R4 conference in Las Vegas we announced a new partnership with RE/MAX that directly syndicates their listings into Trulia’s search index.  This is exciting news for both the millions searching homes for sale on Truila and the thousands of RE/MAX agents across the country.

As part of the agreement, RE/MAX agents and brokers receive partner benefits on Trulia’s hyper-local marketing and advertising solutions, Trulia Pro and Trulia Local Ads.  These services provide RE/MAX agents access to the highest concentration of new buyers available online (comScore Jan 2011).

During R4 conference, Trulia’s Director of Business Development, Mark Weiss, spoke on a panel highlighting the benefits on the new syndication agreement.   Bruce Ailion, one of the many RE/MAX agents using Trulia’s marketing solutions, was in the audience and spoke about his experience:

“ I have been in the business for 31 years, and in my first week with Trulia I received a contact from a highly qualified buyer that I believe will develop into the most significant lead received in those 31 years. This lead has the potential to generate well over $100,000 in business over the next two years. ”

We’re happy to be part of the RE/MAX family and look forward to helping many more RE/MAX agents, just like Bruce.  You can learn more about the agreement by reading our official press release.

Trulia Launches Trulia Direct Reference!

One of the most common complaints we hear from consumers about searching for homes online is that many online property listings have the wrong price or status.  Today we are excited to announce Trulia Direct Reference, a quality assurance system which allows local Multiple Listing Services (MLS) and agents to find out and correct inaccurate data within their markets to ultimately enable the best possible consumer experience for everyone’s benefit.  We have been testing Trulia Direct Reference for a while with some of the country’s leading MLSes and after some very promising results, are ready to open it up for the larger MLS community.

Trulia has been recognized as the #1 quality lead provider two years in a row according to an independent study conducted by ListHub. Trulia Direct Reference adds another layer of quality for online consumers through higher accuracy listing data on Trulia and on the industry as a whole. This was a concept born out of our innovative MLS Advisory Board, which is made up of several of the most influential MLS CEOs in the industry.

How does Trulia Direct Reference work?

Regardless of whether an MLS is syndicating for sale listing data to Trulia, the MLS provides a reference file that shows the status, price and other details on all properties listed in its area.  Trulia then tries to match this data against the listings data syndicated from various sources, including real estate agents, brokers, franchisors and other third party syndicators. We then compare elements, such as price, agent, brokerage and current status.  If there are discrepancies as compared to the MLS system of record, we’ll notify the agent and/or the MLS of the errant data sources to help clean up the data that is out there.  We will also present the correct data from the MLS on Trulia.com.

How will this help the Industry?

As a real estate industry leader, Trulia believes this is a positive and necessary action to boost data integrity across the internet for agents and consumers.  We will all benefit from this, and many of the country’s most respected MLSs – including Chicago’s MRED, Ohio’s NORMLS and many others – are already using Trulia Direct in their respective markets.

How does my MLS join and what does it cost?

Trulia Direct Reference is 100% free of charge to participating MLSs, who can join on a first come first serve basis.  To learn more about joining please contact mark (at) Trulia (dot)com or give me a call.

78% of U.S. Homeowners Describe Home as the BEST Investment They Ever Made

Since 2009, Trulia has tracked American attitudes towards homeownership in its biannual American Dream survey. What we found this time around is that despite the nightmarish housing market, 70% of Americans still view owning a home as part of their personal American Dream. Moreover, we’re seeing positive signals for recovery from Millennials (young adults aged 18-34) and in the South & West.

Check out this slide show for the full survey findings:

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[UPDATE]: Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia, and Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc, discussed the results of the American Dream survey during our quarterly industry conference call on February 9, 2011. To hear a recording of the call, click below.

How to Build a Happy Home (& Relationship)

With Valentine’s Day happening next week, we asked 1,200 American couples – currently married or living together – to rank 11 home features based on what they though would best enhance their relationship. The results will surprise you:

• 21 % of women overwhelmingly said plenty of storage was at the top of their list compared to 13% of men
• 16% of men said water views of sunsets/sunrises would best enhance their relationships while only 10% of women said the same.
• Only 7% of men wanted a man cave while only 1% of women wanted a sewing and crafting room

Click on the infographic below to see the full results.

… continue reading

Future of Listing Syndication Six Years After Birth

Six years ago, Trulia started the new era of online real estate marketing by introducing listing syndication to brokers across the country. This unique type of listing syndication allowed listing brokers and agents to selectively market their own listings to a broader online audience and receive the related leads – typically for free.

What distinguishes Trulia from the thousands of IDX listing websites run by brokers, agents and various third-party sites is that the actual listing broker or agent is the originator and representative of the listing on Trulia.com

Now that listing syndication has become a mainstream practice and “syndication sites” like Trulia have grown to serve millions of users, an old question has raised its head again, namely: Is syndication good or bad for me as a real estate broker?

In many recent conversations with brokers and industry leaders, it is clear to me that some people are frustrated and concerned with the direction of listing syndication.

At Trulia, we have operated under a consistent set of principles specifically designed to balance the needs of the industry and consumers since 2005. Pete and I founded Trulia with a focused mission to revolutionize real estate search and empower individuals to make smarter decisions. Our key promise was the following:

• For consumers: We want to create the most engaging consumer experience possible to help families through the big, emotional process of buying or selling a home
• For the industry: We want to be your No.1 source of new clients and transactions by offering:
  • Free inclusion: We always accept agent and broker listing in our search index for free
  • Listing owner attribution: We always credit the actual listing broker and/or agent while allowing them to control the quality of their listing data
  • Free leads and clicks: Leads and clicks are sent to listing agent/broker from their listings
  • Option to upgrade: Listing owners and other advertising participants can, but are not obligated to, purchase upgrades to generate more leads from their advertising on Trulia
  • Freedom of choice and control: Listing owner can remove their listings from Trulia AND we will never send listings outside of Trulia’s control

The uncertainty around listing syndication that I’ve heard involves three concerns:

• Am I getting value by sharing my listings?
• Am I giving up control/quality of my data?
• I don’t want other agent’s receiving leads from my listings.

What is the value from listing syndication?

Your listings now reach millions of unique prospective buyers for free on Trulia alone:

• Over 10 million unique users to our site every month
• 570 million total property views in 2010
• Nearly 100 percent audience growth every year for the past five years with the first two weeks of 2011 indicating yet another 60 percent or more year-over-year growth
• 72 percent of Trulia’s users plan to purchase a home in the next year
• Three out of four Trulia users do not visit Realtor.com and Zillow

Access to this kind of audience for free is a pretty good arrangement that’s hard to find anywhere else. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to newspapers and other print media to distribute your listings or giving up half of your commission to another company, syndicating to sites like Trulia gives you practically free access to millions of active homebuyers. We think this is a pretty good deal. Not only do you get free access to these customers, but now you can track and measure the results of every media dollar. For instance, you can target your marketing towards specific ZIP codes or cities while tracking every lead until it becomes a completed transaction. No other medium – not even other online services – can do this.

Moreover, in most markets, you can buy a year of upgrades and premium advertising on Trulia for the price of a one-page ad in your local newspaper. I would argue that even a one page newspaper ad is still a waste of marketing money on a medium that doesn’t deliver the kind of return that online – especially those with listing syndication – can offer.

Consumers have clearly voted in favor of syndication sites based on their behavior. In addition to broker and agent websites, many want to conduct research on non-industry, consumer-facing sites. So from all the signs that I can see, I believe that the importance and value of listing syndication as a marketing activity for brokers and agents will only increase in the coming months and years.

How to ensure control over data and quality?

Industry leading brokers have started to move over to direct syndication and I predict this shift will become a widespread trend. Large brokers – those with their own internal IT capabilities – are eliminating middleware such as Threewide and Point2 because of the increased control and visibility that results from direct relationships with sites like Trulia.

While I predict listing syndication will grow in importance, I also believe that the number of “syndication sites” will go down dramatically in the next year or two. Many brokers initially endorsed the view of “syndicate everywhere” and sent their listings to 30 or more websites thinking “more is better,” but now I see the opposite happening for several reasons. Many of the smaller syndication sites simply have no value to deliver or they are faced with a high overhead trying to manage their broker relationships. For example, one of the larger online sites, Roost, recently pivoted its business model while many others are still struggling to keep the lights on without a large-scale audience. I think Brokers will continue this trend of “syndicate selectively” to a few sites so they can control their listing assets. I also believe they should apply selection criteria in choosing these sites based on what delivers the best value for their business, i.e., large audience, quality audience, control of your data.

How do I protect my leads?

Perhaps the loudest negative feedback we hear is about sites, including Trulia, that allow agents to receive leads on or near another broker’s or agent’s listing. On Trulia, this feature is called QuickConnect, which also allows consumers to connect with buyer agents. I can’t speak for other sites, but I want to clarify the Trulia approach and how we have remained true to our principles of delivering for both consumers and the industry.

The reason why we introduced QuickConnect is to ensure a great customer experience AND to provide more leads to agents. In addition to making it easy to connect with the listing agent, we want to make sure end users are getting a response from an agent (since nearly 70 percent of leads don’t get an agent response) and have the option to speak with a buyer agent. Plus, we also know that agents can never get enough leads.

Since we launched QuickConnect, leads to both listing agents and other agents have increased by 40 percent. In just about every market, leads have increased. In no case did leads to listing agents decrease as a result of QuickConnect.

Despite those results, we wanted to deliver on our principle of freedom and control, so we have provided two alternative options for listing brokers:

• Option 1 is completely free: We work with the broker to ensure that all agents claim their listing on Trulia. This is an easy, one-time process. If an agent claims their listing, then we know they are more likely to respond to a customer’s request.When the listing is claimed, only the listing agent is offered as a default agent to contact.In these cases, potential customers typically only send messages to the listing agent.
• Option 2 is a paid upgrade: Brokers can sign up for premium listings, which ensures that only the premium agent is featured on the premium listing with no QuickConnect feature.

Delighting both consumers and the industry can be a challenge, but creating and working hard to maintain this balance is what makes Trulia different from other sites.

Share your thoughts with us: Our Actions Are Driven By Your Feedback

Being customer obsessed is one of Trulia’s core values so I invite you to engage with us in an ongoing dialogue!  Tell us what you think – the good and the bad.

Trulia was the first among our peers to create advisory boards with brokers, franchisors and MLS’s that represent a mix of different sized companies. During these industry meetings, we openly discuss our product ideas and future plans so that we get your feedback on our designs, thoughts and innovation. We also gather customer feedback in our usability lab and via our hundreds of meetings with individual brokers that we conduct each year.

Join us in this dialogue and we’ll work side by side towards achieving mutual success. Georg and I will be reaching out to many of you in the coming months. Or drop us a line at georg@trulia.com or sami@trulia.com to share what’s on your mind.

photo credit: Tetsumo

Rent vs. Buy: More Affordable to Buy in 72% of America’s 50 Largest Cities

Trulia released the findings of its Q1 2011 Rent vs. Buy Index today. When we compared the median list price for a two-bedroom apartment, condo or townhouse with one year’s worth of rent for similar property, it’s actually more affordable to buy in 72% of America’s largest cities. To illustrate which cities are more affordable to buy or to rent, we created a cool interactive map to help people make smarter real estate decisions. Check it out!

Click on the slideshow below for the full Rent vs. Buy Index findings, including the top 10 cities where it’s more affordable to buy and to rent:

Trulia Trends Relaunches

Looking for real estate data? Check out the Trulia Trends section of our News Room – this is where we’ll be releasing and archiving all our industry data reports and consumer opinion surveys going forward.

Speaking of which, we’ve revamped our data program to kickoff 2011 with a fresh start. Our Rent vs. Buy Index and Price Reduction Report will now be issued on a quarterly basis while the results of our biannual American Dream Survey and Foreclosure Survey will continue to be released during our quarterly industry conference calls. Here’s the full schedule:

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Trulia Soars into 2011

As we jump right into the new year, Trulia is happy to report that we’ve closed out 2010 with a bang as the fast-growing site in the real estate category. Thanks to a slew of new product innovations and user-experience enhancements – such as Rental Search, Trulia Mobile and Trulia Local Ads, to name a few – Trulia’s market share jumped by 70%, the biggest gain of all the leading national real estate sites, according to Hitwise.

In fact, more than 89 million unique visitors accounted for more than 570 million property views. On average, that’s 47.5 million a month, 10.9 million a week, 1.5 million a day, 65,068 an hour and 1,084 every single minute!

Other notable successes Trulia achieved in 2010 include:

• Mobile searches grew by approximately 400%, now accounting for more than 10% of overall traffic and more than 15% of weekend traffic.
• Expanded consumer engagement more than doubled the number of leads that Trulia sent to industry professionals.
• Consumers used Trulia to find homes, gather insights about neighborhoods and engage with more than 500,000 real estate professionals in the Trulia Voices community.

To see all our 2010 achievements, check out the full press release (click here).

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Innovate, Accelerate and Celebrate

From day 1 our mission has been to revolutionize the real estate industry.  We have always been focused on creating the best consumer experience and building tools to help consumers make smarter real estate decisions. We believe that the consumer real estate experience will continue to change dramatically and that bringing together local information, community insights and geodata will make your home search a more complete experience.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired Movity, a stealth startup that surfaces geodata for home buyers and renters like noise, crime, and real estate pricing.  Movity aggregates the geodata from a variety of sources and uses it to provide rich insights into any location.

We are very impressed with Movity’s passion for real estate and their vision which directly matches Trulia’s passion and vision. Movity’s team is extremely talented with strong engineering skills, visualizations specialists and real estate background.  The team includes Eric Wu, co-founder of RentWiki.com, Sha Hwang, design technologist from Stamen Design, Vaughn Koch, engineering manager from Expedia/Bing, and Zain Memon, a contributor to the open-source framework Django. To see a sample of their work, check out tendernoise.movity.com/ and www.weeplaces.com.

I am very excited that they will be joining and contributing to our world class engineering organization.  Integrating our teams will accelerate the consumer experience and that is a reason to celebrate!